‘FAN’ Depeche Mode
Directed by Grzegorz Radziejewski, shot in Łódź, Poland and featuring interviews with Alan Wilder, Gareth Jones, Adrian Sherwood and many others, the film is trying to explain why the subculture of Depeche Mode came into being.
Says Radziejewski… “Reaching the final concept took me a long time. I had many ideas while working on the movie.
But let me start from the beginning. The shooting process started in August 2009 and ended in November 2010. What is characteristic and interesting is that all the footage was made in Łódź. Eventually I gathered several hours of material that I had to cope with.
The inspiration for the movie came to me after I heard that Depeche Mode would play in Łódź. It was a huge news! Never before had such a famous band played in our city. I was aware of the fact that there’s a huge group of Depeche Mode fans in Łódź. I decided to meet with them and do some interviews. I didn’t know how the fans would react. My worries were needless as they turned out to be very open to my ideas.
Initially, the general idea of the movie was completely different. I wanted to portray the fans. It seemed relatively easy, but it was not! While working on the movie I was given a unique chance of talking to people who worked with the band. Of course this affected the initial concept of the movie and everything started to be complicated. How to combine these two worlds? Figuring out how to do this was a long process. 😉
The first problem that I had to overcome while working on the movie was resigning from the music of Depeche Mode as a soundtrack. But how to depict the subculture of Depeche Mode fans without playing a single note of the band?
But then I met Maciej Werk, who creates music. We didn’t want to create a soundtrack imitating the music of Depeche Mode. We aimed for something new that would fit in terms of style. Another troublesome issue was the inability of showing the members of the band. But how to depict the fans without showing their beloved band? This problem has also been solved, as the former member of the band, Alan Wilder came to Łódź. He agreed for a long interview. These are only two examples of numerous other issues that I had to consider.
The Fan was fully noncommercial project without any budget. That is why I had to find people eager to do things for free. Let me thank all of you!
I appreciate a great reception of all the fans. I would like to thank all the people who were filmed and apologize those who talked with me and were not included in the final version of the movie. Those decisions were not easy, believe me.
The movie is nearly half an hour long. Probably some of you will say that it’s too short or that there is too little footage with the fans. Definitely The hardest thing was resigning from successive fragments and cutting out the pieces of all those interesting conversations. It was a result of the form and the concept that I have chosen. The main purpose of the movie was to explain the reasons behind the emergence of Depeche Mode subculture.
Watch the movie and judge for yourself if I made it.”
Absolutely brilliant. Gorgeously filmed, and several interesting insights into the relationship between band and devotee.